- Joan Darling
Joan Darling (born
April 14 1935 ,Boston, Massachusetts ) is anactor , film and television director and a dramatic arts instructor.Joan "Joni" Kugell began her career with the New York improvisational theater troupe "Premise Players", and soon graduated to off-Broadway and Broadway productions. She gravitated to feature films and television in the 1970s. She was a regular on the law series, "", playing office secretary to
Arthur Hill ,Lee Majors andDavid Soul .Darling directed episodes of the television series "Rhoda", "Doc", "Taxi", "
Hizzoner ", "The Mary Tyler Moore Show ", "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman ", "Magnum, P.I. ", andSteven Spielberg 's "Amazing Stories ", as well as the feature film "The Check is in the Mail", and a number of made-for-television films.She directed the famous "
Chuckles Bites the Dust " episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show ", and received a 1976 Emmy nomination for her efforts. [http://www.imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Emmy_Awards/1976]In 1976 she broke new ground when she directed the feature film, "First Love", starring
Susan Dey . At the time, this made Darling part of a tiny circle of women directors to direct a major Hollywood studio feature film. Only such Hollywood icons asIda Lupino andDorothy Arzner preceded her in doing so. Fact|date=October 2007 She was one of the pioneering women directors (along withKaren Arthur ,Gabrielle Beaumont , andSharron Miller ) who worked regularly in mainstream Hollywood in the 1970s and 1980s.Partial filmography as director
* "Hiroshima Maiden" (1988) (TV movie)
* "Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories " (TV series)
* "Magnum, P.I. " (1980) (TV series)
* "Willa " (1979) (TV movie)
* "Taxi" (TV series)
* "First Love (film)" (1977)
* "M* A* S* H" (TV series)
* "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman " (TV series)
* "Phyllis" (TV series)
* "The Mary Tyler Moore Show " (TV series)
* "Rhoda" (TV Series)External links
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